Inside The Bitcoin Blockchain

“I think a lot of people mix up bitcoin, and the concept of anonymity. Bitcoin itself is just a string of numbers and letters; the parties behind the transactions are hard to identify. The beauty of bitcoin is the blockchain helps every transaction seem legitimate. At the same time, you’re announcing every transaction conducted in bitcoin, which makes laundering more difficult,” Yum told the WSJ. “A lot of people compare bitcoin to virtual cash. Cash transactions are hard to track, but imagine if every serial number [on a bill] used in a transaction was recorded and announced to the public. Limited to that alone, you can’t track who made the transaction, but you can see a transaction happened.”